When darkness becomes light

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Holy Wednesday, 08 April 2020

Tonight is “Spy Wednesday” – the night traitors and betrayers are put on the spotlight because it was on this night after Palm Sunday when Judas Iscariot struck a deal with the chief priests to hand them over Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (Mt. 26:14-16).

The “Tenebrae” is celebrated in some churches when candles are gradually extinguished with the beating of drums and sounding of matraca to evoke silence and some fear among people as they leave in total darkness to signal the temporary victory of evil in the world for tomorrow we enter the Paschal Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil of the Lord.

Darkness generally evokes evil and sin, uncertainties and sufferings. But, at the same time, darkness preludes light!

That is why Jesus Christ was born during the darkest night of the year to bring us light of salvation.

Beginning tonight, especially tomorrow at his agony in the garden, we shall see Christ entering through darkness reaching its climax on Friday when he dies on the cross with the whole earth covered in darkness, rising on Easter in all his glory and majesty.

Our present situation in an extended Luzon-wide lockdown offers us this unique experience of darkness within and without where we can learn some important lessons from the Lord’s dark hours beginning tomorrow evening of his Last Supper.

St. John gives us a glimpse into how we must deal with life’s darkness that plagues us almost daily with his unique story of the Lord’s washing of his disciples’ feet on the night he was betrayed.

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper… he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter…
John 13:1-2, 4-6

It is very interesting to reflect how Judas Iscariot and Simon Peter dealt with their own inner darkness on that night of Holy Thursday when Jesus was arrested.

Though Judas Iscariot and Simon Peter are poles apart in their personalities, they both give us some traits that are so characteristic also of our very selves when we are in darkness. In the end, we shall see how Jesus turned the darkness of Holy Thursday into becoming the very light of Easter.

Getting lost in darkness like Judas Iscariot

Right after explaining the meaning of his washing of their feet and exhorting them to do the same to one another, Jesus begins to speak of Judas Iscariot as his betrayer.

When he had said this, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me …It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I had dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot. After he took the morsel, Satan entered him… and left at once. And it was night.
John 13:21, 26-27, 30

The scene is very dramatic.

Imagine the darkness outside the streets of Jerusalem in the stillness of the night and the darkness inside the Upper Room where they were staying.

More darker than that was the darkness among the Apostles not understanding what Jesus was saying about his betrayer because they thought when Judas left, he was being told to buy more wine or give money to the poor!

Most of all, imagine the darkness within Judas.

To betray means to hand over to suffering someone dear to you.

That’s one darkness we always have within, of betraying Jesus, betraying our loved ones because we have found somebody else to love more than them. Satan had taken over Judas. The same thing happens to us when we sin, when we love someone more than those who truly love us or those we have vowed to love always.

And the darkest darkness of all is after handing over our loved ones, after dumping them for something or somebody else, we realize deep within the beautiful light of truth and love imprinted in our hearts by our betrayed loved ones – then doubt it too!

The flickering light of truth and love within is short lived that we immediately extinguish it, plunging us into total darkness of destruction like Judas when he hanged himself.

See how Judas went back to the chief priests because “he had sinned”, giving them back the 30 pieces of silver to regain Jesus.

Here we find the glow of Jesus, of his teachings and friendship within Judas still etched in his heart — the light of truth and love flickering within.

Any person along with their kindness and goodness like Jesus, our family and true friends can never be removed from one’s heart and person. They will always be there, sometimes spurting out in our unguarded moments because they are very true.

That is the darkest darkness of Judas – and of some of us – who think we can never be forgiven by God, that we are doomed, that there is no more hope and any chance at all.

See how the evangelist said it: “Judas left at once. And it was night.”

And that is getting lost in darkness permanently, eaten up by darkness within us because we refuse to believe in the reality of a loving and forgiving God who had come to plunge into the darkness of death to be one with us so we can be one in him. What a loss.

Groping in the dark into the light like Peter

*Photo by author, Church of Gallicantu, Jerusalem where the cock crowed after Peter denied Jesus the third time, May 2017.*

Of the Twelve, it is perhaps with Simon Peter we always find ourselves identified with: the eager beaver, almost a “bolero” type who is so good in speaking but many times cannot walk his talk.

“Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
John 13:6-8

Here is Peter so typical of us: always assuming of knowing what is right, which is best, as if we have a monopoly of the light when in fact we are in darkness.

See how during the trial of Jesus before the priests, Peter denied him thrice, declaring he never knew Jesus while outside in the dark, completely in contrast with Jesus brilliantly answering every question and false accusation against him inside among his accusers!

Many times in our lives, it is so easy for us to speak on everything when we are in our comfort zones, safe and secured in our lives and career. But when left or thrown out into the harsh realities of life, we grope in the darkness of ignorance and incompetence, trials and difficulties.

How often we are like Peter refusing Jesus to wash our feet because we could not accept the Lord being so humble to do that simply because he is the Lord and Master who must never bow low before anyone.

And that is one darkness we refuse to let go now shaken and shattered by the pandemic lockdown! The people we used to look down upon are mostly now in the frontlines providing us with all the comforts we enjoy in this crisis like electricity, internet, security, food, and other basic services.

Bronze statue of the call of Peter by Jesus. Photo by author, May 2017.

We have always thought of the world, of peoples in hierarchy, in certain status where there are clear delineations and levels of importance, totally forgetting the lessons of Jesus of being like a child, of service and humility: “whoever wants to be great must be the least and servant of all.”

According to Matthew and Luke, Peter realized his sins – the darkness within him – of denying Jesus thrice after the cock crowed that he left the scene weeping bitterly, feeling so sorry. Eventually after Easter, Peter would meet Jesus again on the shores of the Lake of Tiberias, asking him thrice, “do you love me?”

Peter realized how dark his world has always been but in that instance when he declared his love that is so limited and weak did he finally see the light of Christ in his love and mercy!

Unlike Judas, Peter moved out of darkness and finally saw the light in the Risen Lord right in the very place where everything started when he was called to be a fisher of men, in his humanity as he was called by his original name, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?”.

Human love is always imperfect and Jesus knows this perfectly well!

The best way to step out of darkness within us is to be like Simon — simply be your imperfect self, accepting one’s sins and weakness for that is when we can truly love Jesus who is the only one who can love us perfectly.

Overcoming darkness in, Jesus, with Jesus, through Jesus

Though the fourth gospel and the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke differ in providing us with the transition from the Upper Room of the Last Supper into the agony in the garden, the four evangelists provide us with one clear message at how Jesus faced darkness: with prayer, of being one in the Father.

Even on the cross of widespread darkness, Jesus spoke only to pray to the Father.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress.
Matthew 26:36-37

*Photo by author, altar of the Church of All Nations beside the Garden of Gethsemane, May 2017. The church is always dimly lit to keep the sense of darkness during the Agony in the Garden of Jesus.*

Before, darkness for man was seen more as a curse falling under the realm of evil and sin; but, with the coming of Jesus, darkness became a blessing, a prelude to the coming of light.

We have mentioned at the start of our reflection that Jesus was born during the darkest night of the year to show us he that is the light of the world, who had come to enlighten us in this widespread darkness, within us and outside us.

As the light of the world, Jesus was no stranger to darkness which he conquered and tamed in many instances like when they were caught in a storm at sea and in fact, when walked on water to join his disciples caught in another storm.

But most of all, Jesus had befriended darkness and made it a prelude to light.

How? By always praying during darkness. By prayer, it is more than reciting some prayers common during his time as a Jew but as a form of submission to the will of the Father. Jesus befriended darkness by setting aside, forgetting his very self to let the Father’s will be done.

Bass relief of agony in the garden on the wall of the Church of All Nations at Gethsemane. Photo by author, May 2019.

This he showed so well in two instances, first on Mount Tabor where he transfigured and second in Gethsemane before his arrest.

In both events, Jesus showed us the path to overcoming darkness is always through prayers, of being one in the Father.

It is in darkness when God is most closest to us because it is then when we get a glimpse of himself, of his love and mercy, of his own sufferings and pains, and of his glory.

This is something the three privileged disciples – Simon Peter, James and his brother John – did not realize while being with Jesus at both instances until after Easter. We are those three who always fall asleep, who could not keep with praying in Jesus, with Jesus, and through Jesus.

It was in the darkness of the night when Jesus spent most of his prayer periods, communing with the Father up in a mountain or a deserted place.

On Mount Tabor, Jesus showed his coming glory while in Gethsemane he showed his coming suffering and death. But whether in Gethsemane or on Mount Tabor, it is always Jesus we meet inviting us to share in his oneness with the Father, in his power in the Holy Spirit to overcome every darkness in life.

And the good news is he had already won for us!

*Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News of Mt. Samat with the Memorial Cross across the Manila Bay following clear skies resulting from the lockdown imposed since March 17, 2020.*

In these extended darker days of quarantine period, let us come to the Lord closer in prayer to. experience more of his Passion and Death, more of his darkness so we may see his coming glory when everything is finally cleared in this corona pandemic.

Prayer does not necessarily change things but primarily changes the person first. And that is when prayer changes everything when we become like Jesus in praying.

Jesus is asking us to leave everything behind, to forget one’s self anew to rediscover him in this darkness when we get out of our comfort zones to see the many sufferings he continues to endure with our brothers and sisters with lesser things in this life, with those in total darkness, with those groping in the dark.

Now more than ever, we have realized the beauty of poverty and simplicity, of persons than things.

And most especially of darkness itself becoming light for us in this tunnel.

May Jesus enlighten us and vanish all darkness in us so that soon, we shall celebrate together the joy of his coming again in this world darkened by sin. Amen.

A blessed and prayerful Paschal Triduum to you.

The golden calves among us

40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week IV, 26 March 2020

***Exodus 32:7-14* ><)))> +++ <(((>< *John 5:31-47***

Like you, O God in the first reading today, we are all angry. We are so mad with our so-called leaders and officials in government. We are angry at their arrogance and total disregard of others especially in this time of global crisis due to COVID-19.

Like you, O God, we also seeth with anger when you at Sinai saw how the Israelites created a golden calf to worship, after you have brought them out from Egypt. We admit our sinfulness and guilt before you in having our own we golden calves like power, money, and fame among many others.

But what we are so mad, O God, is how these leaders and officials in government – whether elected or appointed – have made themselves the golden calves to be served and worshipped by everyone.

They are the golden calves themselves who have brought shame and dishonor to our nation.

They do exactly what your Son and our Savior Jesus Christ had taught us that whoever wants to be great must be the least and servant of all.

But they are certainly not. They have shamelessly acted foolish and selfish since this pandemic started.

Forgive us, too, merciful Father, for our many sins, for being deluded by these many other golden calves in our midst, in the government.

The words of your Son Jesus Christ today are so true:

“I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.”
John 5:41-43

Like you, O God, we are angry at them, at how things are going on.

But like you, O God, let us relent in wishing ill for these misguided leaders whom your misguided people have put in power too.

Like you, O God, let us temper with mercy and charity our feelings and emotions against them.

Most of all, make us truly wiser in the next elections! Amen.

Lockdown and countdown, honor and dishonor in COVID-19

40 Shades of Lent, Wednesday, Solemnity of the Annunciation, 25 March 2020

***Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10* +++ Hebrews 10:4-10 +++ *Luke 1:26-38***

Mosaic of the Annunciation to Mary at San Giovanni Rotondo Church, Italy. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2019.

Glory and praise to you, O God our Father as we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus Christ to Mary. What a celebration so appropriate in this time of COVID-19 amid the ongoing lockdown not only in our country but in many parts of the world.

You know how I am not into any countdown whatsoever, Lord; in fact, I do not even keep tabs of how many days we have been locked down except that I really miss my parishioners, the normal grind of each day.

But as I prayed on this Solemnity, the first thing that I realized is that we are nine months from Christmas!

Jesus is coming, Jesus has come, Jesus is never gone — especially in this lockdown!

Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera during our procession of the Blessed Sacrament in our Parish, 22 March 2020.

What an honor and grace, O Lord, that despite our sinfulness and failures, you continue to offer us salvation, of starting all over again, of picking up the pieces of our lives, of hoping for that great day when all these lockdown and pandemic are gone.

We pray for all the health workers who sacrifice their very lives in saving the sick and all the other unsung heroes who do their share in helping us unburden the heavy crosses we are carrying following COVID-19’s wrath.

Thank you for the many among us who have opened like Mary to receive Jesus and share Jesus in these trying times.

But we also pray, O Lord, for those many of us who remain closed and cold to you and to others.

The people who continue to ignore “social distancing” and those who have remained spiritually and emotionally distant from family members, friends, and neighbors.

We pray most especially for our officials in the government who continue to bring more shame and dishonor to themselves to the detriment of the people.

The leaders who think more of themselves, who regard themselves as more important than others. The modern “King Ahaz” of our time who rely more on their own power, on their alliances with their foreign and local lords and masters.

Have mercy on them, Lord.

Come quickly and save us.

Open our hearts, teach us humility to be able to say to you like Mary, “Be it done unto me according to your word.” Amen.

Photo by author of the site where Mary received the Good News of Christ’s coming from Archangel Gabriel beneath the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth, 2019.

Where is our love?

40 Shades of Lent, Saturday, Week III, 21 March 2020

***Hosea 6:1-6* <(((>< +++ ><)))> *Luke 18:9-14***

Photo by author, Mount St. Paul, Trinidad, Benguet (04 February 2020).

Your words today, O Lord, are so true.

And so painful, too.

What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes. For this reason I smote them through the prophets, I slew them by the words of my mouth. For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather burnt offering.
Hosea 6:4-6

We could feel your sadness, O Lord, speaking to us who have become like your people Israel. Slay us with your words as we close the first week of our heightened community quarantine deep in confusion and loss when our leaders fail – or refuse – to rise to maturity and statesmanship when concern for ego and turfs have become their main preoccupation while others are nowhere to be found.

Where is the love, O Lord, they have promised us, our country?

But the more painful question we all have to answer really is where is our love? Where is our love for our country expressed in electing all these officials we now have? Where is the love we have promised to one another, of husband and wife, of parents and children, of siblings, of friends?

We have sinned, O God our Father, because we have failed or refused to love and share your immense love for each one of us.

Forgive us, for we have lost the essence of love, of forgetting one’s self in favor of the beloved. We have loved our selves too much, thinking we are always just and right, truly the ones for whom today’s gospel is meant for without exceptions.

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
Luke 18:9-14

We have thought that love is when the good times roll, when there is laughter and pleasure, when there is affluence. Worst of all, we have thought that love is a material expressed in things or mere feelings we always show in sweet nothings.

Teach us again to remember that love is a person … because you are love, O God!

Deus caritas est (1 John 4:8).

Let us love, love, and love truly like Jesus your Son who gave himself for us on the cross. Amen.

Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, 2019.

Unbelievable

40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week III, 20 March 2020

***Hosea 14:2-10* ><)))> +++ <(((>< *Mark 12:28-34***

Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul, Trinidad, Benguet, 04 February 2020.

Unbelievable.

That’s the only word you spoke to me Lord in my prayers last night and this morning.

Unbelievable.

As the days move on, God our Father, the more I could not believe all these things going on. What have happened with us, Lord?

Bakit kami nagkaganito at paano kami humantong dito, Panginoon?

Your words today, O Lord, are so true. It is you indeed who speaks to us especially in the first reading through the Prophet Hosea. You have spoken so well — we have all sinned.

We have disregarded you and others. We have relied so much in our own powers and abilities. We have insisted on doing things our own ways totally discarding your teachings.

But more unbelievable in this unbelievable situation is your immense love and mercy for us, O God our Father.

Thus says the Lord: Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the Lord… I will heal their defection, says the Lord, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily.
Hosea 14:2-3, 5-6

Help us, Father through your Son Jesus Christ that we may look more inside ourselves these trying times, that we may see you more and as we see you as the most essential, the most important of all, we also see our value as persons.

Let us experience that love you have for us that we ought to share with one another, beginning in our family, in our neighborhood.

How unbelievable that some of us, like that scribe who asked Jesus “which is the first of all commandments”, we keep on categorizing, ranking things and even persons to determine who or what is the most important — the first.

Unbelievable but true, this pandemic is happening because we have forgotten you and we have forgotten others too. We have forgotten YOU are always first, always great. Semper Primus, semper Major!

Teach us to see more of you so that we also see you among one another. Amen.

Huwag matakot tulad ni San Jose

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-19 ng Marso 2020

Larawan ng mosaic ng panaginip ni San Jose mula sa clarusonline.it

"Huwag kang matakot, Jose
na tuluyang pakasalan si Maria",
mga salita na atin ding kinakailangan
sa panahong ito ng pagsubok at kagipitan.

Ating tularan si San Jose
huwaran ng kabanalan 
lalo ng mga kalalakihan 
at ama ng tahanan.

Kaya naman katulad niya,
manalangin tayo na huwag matakot
magsama-sama muli sa tahanan
mabuo muli pamilyang ating pinabayaan.

Huwag matakot 
mag-usap muli mag-asawa
di lamang makapakinig
kungdi muling magkaniig.

Huwag matakot
mga anak lumapit sa magulang,
magtapat ng saloobin
ihinga mga hinaing.

Gayon din mga magkakapatid
huwag matakot magkalapit-lapit
madalas kulang na sa malasakit
palaging mayroong hinanakit.

Larawan mula zenit.org, figurine ng “Let Mom Rest”.

Huwag matakot
tingnan din pangangailangan
ng mga maliliit sa lipunan
mga may-sakit, nag-iisa at aba.

Sila palagi nating
kinakalimutan at pinababayaan
higit ngayong nangangailangan
ng tulong at kaibigan.

Huwag matakot
ipadama pagmamahal
kapwa ay igalang
itigil na mga kabastusan.

Huwag matakot
humingi ng tawad
gayon din ng magpatawad
tunay na sukatan ng pagmamahalan.

Larawan kuha ng may-akda, dating gawaan ni San Jose sa kanilang tahanan sa Nazareth, Israel (Mayo 2017).

O aming San Jose
taong matuwid at banal
kami man ay ipinalangin
maging matapang tulad mo.

Huwag kaming matakot
lumuhod at manalangin muli
sa Diyos upang kanyang kalooban
aming malaman, masundan, at mapanindigan.

Higit sa lahat
katulad mo kami ay gumising
sa pagkakahimbing ng pagkamakasarili namin
upang si Kristo ay muling dumating!  Amen.

Larawan kuha ng may-akda, kapilya ni San Jose sa Nazareth, Israel (Mayo 2017).

A prayer to be not afraid like St. Joseph

40 Shades of Lent, Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, 19 March 2020

***2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16* +++ Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 +++ *Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24***

Photo from zenit.org, “Let Mom Rest” figurine

Praise and thanksgiving to you, O God our loving Father in giving us your Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. In sending him to us, you have asked St. Joseph to be not afraid to be the husband of the Blessed Mother of Jesus, Mary Most Holy.

…the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
Matthew 1:20-21, 24

We pray today on this Solemnity of St. Joseph that we may also not be afraid in fighting this pandemic COVID-19.

Let us be not afraid to stay home to be with our family again, together and longer.

Photo by author, Chapel of St. Joseph, Nazareth, Israel, May 2017.

Let us be not afraid to talk and converse really as husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters. Help us to be more open and more silent like St. Joseph to hear our family members’ innermost thoughts and feelings again with love and understanding.

Let us be not afraid, O Lord, to seek and work for real peace in our family now disintegrating as we disregard each other, choosing fame and wealth than persons.

Let us be not afraid to reach out also to those living alone like the sick, the elderly, the separated, those abandoned by family and friends or society, those widowed.

Let us be not afraid to share food and money to the needy, time and talent, joy and hope to those living in the margins.

Let us be not afraid to ask for forgiveness, to say again those beautiful words “I am sorry” to those we have hurt in words and in deeds; likewise, let us be not afraid to say also those comforting words “I forgive you” to those who have hurt us in words and in deeds.

Let us not be afraid to show respect anew to our elders. Forgive us, O God, in making disrespect a way of life in our time, in our society, in our government and right in our homes and family as we disregard the dignity of one another.

Let us not be afraid to pray again, to kneel before you, and humbly come to you as repentant sinners, merciful Father.

Let us be not afraid to bring Jesus your Son into this world with your love and kindness, sympathy and empathy so we may be healed of so many brokenness and pains deep within.

Let us not be afraid to be humans again and realize we are not gods, that we cannot control everyone and everything in this world.

Let us be not afraid to be open to you and to others, especially the weak and needy because the truth is, we need you O God and one another.

Please, like St. Joseph, let us not be afraid to wake up to the realities of this life to follow you always in your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

O blessed St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, pray for us!

Photo by author, site of St. Joseph’s shop in Nazareth beneath a chapel in his honor, May 2017.

A prayer to be simple and faithful

40 Shades of Lent, Monday, Week III, 16 March 2020

***2 Kings 5:1-15* ><)))> + <(((>< *Luke 4:24-30***

Photo by author, Baguio Cathedral, January 2019.

Praise and glory to you, O God our Father for this Monday, our first working day and most of all, when all plans for community quarantine are put to severe tests. Please give us the grace to be simple and faithful to you.

In the eerie silence of this past weekend while many have finally stayed home and hopefully reconnected with you and family, we still need your tremendous grace to change our ways to become better persons and disciples of Jesus your son.

We pray most especially for our leaders in the government today to be sincere and simple but also professional, efficient and exceptional in serving the people.

Please, we pray O God, enough with our callous and grandstanding politicians who act like the king of Israel in the time of the Prophet Elisha who tore his garment and exclaimed against the friendly request of the king of Aram for Naaman’s healing, always seeking attention:

“Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king: “Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel.”
2 Kings 5:7-8

Come to us, O God, send us a prophet who can stand up against these people playing gods and cast them down from their thrones. They have long been a burden to your people like those enemies of Jesus at the synagogue of Capernaum.

Likewise, keep us simple and faithful too, O God, that we learn to be obedient and cooperative in this time of serious emergencies. Like Naaman, help us to set aside our biases and other inclinations, thinking only of the good of the country.

Let our prayers and pieties bear fruit in more authentic service especially to the poor and those with less in life. Amen.

In touch Vs. Out of touch

40 Shades of Lent, Sunday Week II-A, 08 March 2020

***Genesis 12:1-4* +++ 2 Timothy 1:8-10 +++ *Matthew 17:1-9***

“Creation of Adam” by Michaelangelo at Sistine Chapel, the Vatican. From Wikipedia.

Touch is a very powerful word – literally and figuratively speaking. We say “we are touched” when we are deeply moved by words or music, gestures, acts, and scenes that need not be so spectacular because to touch is about making a connection, a communion of persons.

A touch can be so powerful that when filled with love and sincerity, it can transform the person being touched. Experts say that a touch of about five seconds is worth more than 300 words of encouragement and praise!

And that is why our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God is a certified “touch person” who always reached out to people by physically touching them, embracing them to make them feel his loving presence, his mercy, and most of all, his healing.

Almost all his healings were done by touching the sick when he would lay his hands on them like with the blind Bartimaeus on the street of Jericho.

There were times Jesus held up the hand of the sick to raise them up from their bed like Peter’s mother-in-law and the daughter of Jairus. Sometimes in rare occasions, Jesus healed in the most bizarre ways with his sense of touch like with that deaf in Decapolis.

He (Jesus) put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”).
Mark 7:33-34

In Nain, Jesus raised to life the son of a widow by touching the coffin – not the dead – by saying, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” that everyone was amazed, saying “the Lord has visited his people”.

Jesus never missed an occasion without personally touching another person, especially the children like when he caught his disciples driving them away.

“Jesus blessing Little Children”, painting by British North American Benjamin West PRA (1781). Photo from wikipedia.

It is perhaps one of the most touching story of Jesus touching others when he told his disciples to “let the children come to me for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, after which he embraced them, laid his hands on them and blessed them.

How blessed were those children must be to be embraced and laid with hands on by Jesus! According to tradition, one of those kids embraced and blessed by Jesus was St. Ignatius of Antioch who became a bishop and martyr in the early Church.

That is the transforming power of the touch by Jesus that children are blessed, the sick are healed by restoring their sight or cleansing their skin of leprosy, forgiving the sinners, giving hope to the poor. His touch is always a part of his proclamation of the good news to the people.

Jesus continues to touch us today in every Mass we celebrate when he first speaks to us in the scriptures, trying to make us feel our “hearts burn inside” like the disciples going home to Emmaus on Easter Sunday; and secondly, when he gives us his Body and Blood to partake in the Holy Eucharist.

Most of all, Jesus continues to literally touch us today through one another in our loving service to one another as a community of his disciples.

But, in this age of social media when every communication is mediated by gadgets and other instruments, this kind of personal communication is something we have all been missing because we have stopped touching Jesus, touching others too.

And this is what the second Sunday of Lent is trying to remind us today in the Transfiguration of Jesus.

Transfiguration of Jesus, communion of God with us

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them… a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
Matthew 17:1-2, 5-7

“Transfiguration of Jesus” by Raphael from wikipedia.

We hear this story of the Transfiguration of Jesus twice every year: the Second Sunday of Lent and the sixth of August for the Feast of the Transfiguration. At this time of the year, the Transfiguration story is heard in relation with the Lord’s coming Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

At his Transfiguration, Jesus made it very clear that his glory and divinity must always be seen in the light of his Cross for it is only with his Cross that he can be correctly recognized as the Christ. It is on the Cross where Jesus truly touches us too in our personhood, in our humanity.

See how the three disciples were seized with fear upon hearing the voice of the Father while a bright cloud cast a vast shadow over them; but, it was right in that “tremendum fascinans” that we also find the intimacy, the closeness of God to us through Jesus Christ when he touched the three disciples.

Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
Matthew 17:7

And that is the good news for us all!

God had chosen to be so close to us in his Son Jesus Christ who touches us most not only in glory but most especially in moments of trials and tribulations! It is on the Cross where humanity and the divine truly become one in Jesus, when that personal and loving touch of Jesus becomes transformative and even performative.

This is the reason St. Paul exhorted Timothy to “bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God” (2Tim.1:8) because oneness with Jesus always starts at the cross!

This is very true with us too when we only come to realize who are our true friends, our BFF’s when they are personally one with us in our trials and tribulations, not only in times we are well and good.

True transformation in Jesus can only happen when we are willing to be one with him, to be in touch with him in his passion and death for it is the only path to his Easter glory of transfiguration.

Touch communication vs. mediated communication

How sad that in this age of modern communications that have shrunk the world into a “global village” with instant communications that instead of growing together we have grown more apart than ever from each other.

We have lost real communications that lead to communion of persons or unity of people because we have become more concerned with the techniques of communication, more of skills and gadgets than of persons.

That is the meaning of media or “mediated communication” where there is always a medium between or among persons like cellphones and gadgets.

No more interpersonal relationships, making us more isolated and alienated, leading to growing problems of loneliness, depression, and suicides.

How frustrating sometimes to attend social functions like dinners and weddings where everyone is more busy and interested with their cellphones than with persons beside them!

Aside from isolation from persons, we have also grown “out of touch” with reality itself when more and more people are retreating into their own small worlds like cocoons with wires attached into their ears while their eyes fixated on screens oblivious to the world around them.

We have become so out of touch with ourselves and with others that more and more we are becoming like porcupines – we have not only stopped getting in touch with others but even hurt others if ever we touch them!

Parents, lovers, couples, even people we trust like priests and religious sometimes hurt us with their touch instead of healing us, comforting us. Nobody would want to go through the Passion of the Cross anymore that we would rather stay on top of the mountain, of everything to be delighted with our perceived power and glory.

So unlike in our first reading where we get the feel and touch of real encounter in persons between God and Abraham. Note how in just four verses the word “bless” used five times by God to Abraham, promising to bless him more if he leaves his kin to follow him to the land he would give him.

In their conversation, we find a very personal and engaging communication, as if God and Abraham were literally in touch with each other, where there is personal contact and communication.

We know this for a fact at how effective and more reliable are personal interactions in communication than mediated ones through phones and email – personal communications always have that feel and touch that enable us to negotiate further and be more fruitful.

This Season of Lent, the Father is asking us to be in touch with him again by listening to the words of his Son Jesus who asks us only one thing: deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. Let us heed him, touch him, and allow him to touch us again to be healed and transformed.

May you be touched as you touch also others in the most loving way this Sunday throughout the whole week! Amen.

Lent is for “debugging”

40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week-I, 06 March 2020

***Ezekiel 18:21-28* +++ 0 +++ *Matthew 5:20-26***

Photo by author, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, Lent 2020.

Once again, our loving Father, I take the computer as my point of comparison for my prayer reflection on this second Friday of Lent.

Thank you in giving us this blessed season of Lent when we are able to “debug” our “internal hard drive” – the heart – to be cleansed of bugs and virus as well as unnecessary materials that slow us down to be holy and perfect like you.

Your words are very reassuring of how you want us to be “fixed” always, to be in good condition, filled with life and holiness.

Thus says the Lord God: “Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of a wicked?” says the Lord God. “Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live? Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous man turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniqity he committed that he must die. But if the wicked, trning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”
Ezekiel 18:23, 25-28

Educate our hearts, O Lord.

Help us “surpass the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees” in Jesus Christ who have come to perfect the laws in himself, in love.

May your purifying love, sweet Jesus, cleanse us of our sins, delete our painful memories that continue to hold us back, preventing us to move forward and forgive others and especially our very selves.

Make us rejoice, O Lord, in your immense love and share it with others so that we may grow more in holiness in you. Amen.